I have enjoyed being in EDM 310 with everyone, and I hope that you all have learned as much as I did this semester. I wish everyone the best in their future schooling and career. Hope to see everyone again one day. Have a great summer!
Thank you Ms. Averitt for all the things that you have taught us. I think that you are a great teacher and I enjoyed being in your class this semester. I wish you the best of luck in the rest of your schooling!
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
What Did I Learn?
I think that this class was a great experience. The class has taught me how to use the new technologies and how to incorporate them into my classroom. Some things that I have learned is how to create my own blog, how to write and record a podcast, and how to create an iGoogle page. I think that all of the things we have learned this semester will be beneficial to us as future teachers.
Blogging has become a new technology that is being used in classrooms worldwide. Through this course I have learned different ways to use a blog in the classroom. One thing that blogs can be used for is to communicate with other schools. Another thing that blogs can be used for is to communicate with parents. Blogs allow teachers to post information about upcoming events in the classroom and at the school. I will use classroom blog to communicate with parents, post newsletters, assignments, upcoming events, and communicate with other teachers and students around the world. I believe that a blog is a good technology to incorporate into the classroom because it teaches the students to communicate via the Internet.
I believe that iGoogle is also a great teaching tool to incorporate into the classroom. IGoogle allows teachers to post information that can be resourceful for the students and parents. Some of the features that are currently on my iGoogle page are upcoming events, birthday count downs, assignments, and learning tools. The learning tools include Math and Reading activities and educational games. The iGoogle website is a resource used to help the students learn while having fun. I plan to use the iGoogle website on a daily basis for my classroom.
Podcast were also a great tool that I learned about this semester. I think that podcast are great technologies to incorporate into the classroom. I plan to incorporate videopodcasting into my daily classroom lessons. Video podcasting not only gives the students the information on the subject, but also keeps the students attention by demonstration with verbal directions. I believe that by using podcasting in my teaching it will help keep the students interested while incorporating all of the different learning styles.
Overall, I think that this is a great class. I learned a lot of new technologies and how I can incorporate them into my classroom. I think that Ms. Averitt did a great job covering how to use all of the new technologies that will be available to us as future teachers.
Blogging has become a new technology that is being used in classrooms worldwide. Through this course I have learned different ways to use a blog in the classroom. One thing that blogs can be used for is to communicate with other schools. Another thing that blogs can be used for is to communicate with parents. Blogs allow teachers to post information about upcoming events in the classroom and at the school. I will use classroom blog to communicate with parents, post newsletters, assignments, upcoming events, and communicate with other teachers and students around the world. I believe that a blog is a good technology to incorporate into the classroom because it teaches the students to communicate via the Internet.
I believe that iGoogle is also a great teaching tool to incorporate into the classroom. IGoogle allows teachers to post information that can be resourceful for the students and parents. Some of the features that are currently on my iGoogle page are upcoming events, birthday count downs, assignments, and learning tools. The learning tools include Math and Reading activities and educational games. The iGoogle website is a resource used to help the students learn while having fun. I plan to use the iGoogle website on a daily basis for my classroom.
Podcast were also a great tool that I learned about this semester. I think that podcast are great technologies to incorporate into the classroom. I plan to incorporate videopodcasting into my daily classroom lessons. Video podcasting not only gives the students the information on the subject, but also keeps the students attention by demonstration with verbal directions. I believe that by using podcasting in my teaching it will help keep the students interested while incorporating all of the different learning styles.
Overall, I think that this is a great class. I learned a lot of new technologies and how I can incorporate them into my classroom. I think that Ms. Averitt did a great job covering how to use all of the new technologies that will be available to us as future teachers.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Eutopia Podcast
The first podcast that I listened to was "The Edible Schoolyard". The podcast was done at Martin Luther King Middle School in Burkely, California. The students involved in the podcast were in the sixth grade. The podcast was about using gardening to teach math, social studies, science, and life. The gardening was a daily activity performed one hour in the morning at Martin Luther King Middle School. The students at this school perform tasks such as planting and harvesting different types of food. After the food is grown the students go into the cooking lab and learn how to cook different types of food, such as pies. This experience teaches students how to cooporate well with others and how to build a community. "The Edible Schoolyard" concept was created by Alice Waters while trying to improve school lunches.
The second podcast that I listened to was "A Night in the Global Village". This podcast was done in Denver, Colorado by teachers and students from Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning. The students and teachers from the Rocky Mountain School became involved in the Global Gateway Program. This program allows students to feel what it is like to walk in someone elses shoes. This program was made to help students become aware of world poverty and hunger. The students and teachers who are involved in this program must stay a night in the village. The villages are made to represent different types of living conditions from different countries around the world. Some of the countries are Thailand and Guatemala. Some of the other living conditions are the Appliachian Mountains and a rufugee camp. Before the students and their teachers and/or chaperones stay the night they all visit the different villages. When visiting the villages the students and teachers learn about the various countries poverty, hunger, and sanitzion conditions.
The second podcast that I listened to was "A Night in the Global Village". This podcast was done in Denver, Colorado by teachers and students from Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning. The students and teachers from the Rocky Mountain School became involved in the Global Gateway Program. This program allows students to feel what it is like to walk in someone elses shoes. This program was made to help students become aware of world poverty and hunger. The students and teachers who are involved in this program must stay a night in the village. The villages are made to represent different types of living conditions from different countries around the world. Some of the countries are Thailand and Guatemala. Some of the other living conditions are the Appliachian Mountains and a rufugee camp. Before the students and their teachers and/or chaperones stay the night they all visit the different villages. When visiting the villages the students and teachers learn about the various countries poverty, hunger, and sanitzion conditions.
I enjoyed listening to both of these podcast. I think that these podcast were by far the most interesting that I have listened to this semester. I think that incorporating podcast, such as these into lesson plans is a great experience for all students. These podcast will help me to teach the students the information they should be learing while using a hands-on approach.
I think that podcasts are great technologies to incorporate into the classroom. I think that the video podcasting is more interesting than regular podcasting. Video podcasting not only gives the students the information on the subject, but also keeps the students attention by demonstration with verbal directions. I plan to use incorporate video podcasting into my daily classroom lessons. I think that podcasting will teach the students while keeping them interested in the subject. Podcasting allows teachers to incorporate learning into the classroom by other teaching methods. Video podcasting meets all students learning styles.
ACCESS Lab
I visited Robertsdale High School’s ACCESS lab. The ACCESS lab was created to provide students with opportunities that they might not have at their own schools. The ACCESS lab allows students from other schools to participate in classes that their schools may not offer such as advanced mathematics. ACCESS is a wonderful technology for schools and provides students with many opportunities.Robertsdale High School’s ACCESS lab consists of technology which is called the Tanberg system. This system cost $85,000. While ACCESS is a great technology to have in the school the biggest problem is that many schools cannot afford to spend that much money. To have an ACCESS lab in the school it requires many special items for the system to work properly. The ACCESS lab calls for many special items, such as tables, lighting, chairs, paint, phone lines, a fax machine, copier, and printer. All of these things are needed for the system to perform to its best ability. All of the items must be purchased separately from the system.
Like many technologies there is always a technology problem that interrupts use of the system. One problem with having this technology is that no other schools have it, so it is hard to make use of the system. Another problem is that there are not enough teachers to teach using this system. Finally budget cuts are reducing extra funding that schools need to purchase the system.
Robertsdale High School’s ACCESS lab consists of an instructor camera, student camera, twenty four laptops, an Elmo (which is a document camera), and two televisions. The instructor camera is always pointed at the instructor and it is used when the instructor is teaching a class. This allows the instructor to teach at one school and be broadcasted to another school via television. The student camera is always pointed at the students and it used at all times when the teacher is not teaching. This allows the students to interact with one another while in different schools. The twenty four laptops are provided for the students to use in the classroom. Most of the class work is completed on the computers. The Elmo allows the teacher to show students small items and project them on the screen instead of passing them individually around the class. The Elmo makes it very easy for students in another classroom to see the document through broadcasting. There is a television placed in the front of the class and the back of the class; this makes it easy for the teacher and students to see others (from another school) or things that are projected through the Elmo.
The ACCESS lab was created to give students opportunities that they did not have in their own school. At this moment ACCESS is being used in other ways since there are not many schools with this new technology. The other ways that the technology at Robertsdale High School has been used is through virtual field trips and teacher in-services. A class at Robertsdale High School was able to go on a virtual field trip to the Museum of Natural Science. This museum is thousands of miles away from the school and without the ACCESS lab students may have not been able to have this experience. Teacher in-services are another great way to use the technology because it allows teachers to have an opportunity to communicate and learn from other teachers throughout the United States. I think that ACCESS is a great technology to use in the school because it allows many experiences that students and teachers may not otherwise be able to experience.
I personally think that ACCESS is a wonderful opportunity for teachers and students. I enjoyed visiting the lab and being able to see how everything worked. As more schools begin to purchase the labs it will give students and teachers a better opportunity to become involved with students and teachers from other schools and communities. I think that ACCESS is a great technology to use in schools using the new technologies helps to broaden our horizons.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Electronic Contact
My electronic contact for this assignment was Ms. Dayle Timmons from Chet Creek Elementary School in Jacksonville, Florida. Ms. Timmons is a Primary Inclusion teacher and a Literacy Coach. Earlier in this semester we had to find a blog from a K-12 school in the United States and write a summary about their blog. While searching the internet, I found Ms. Timmons blog. I thought that Ms. Timmons blog was very interesting and creative. When I posted my blog post about Ms. Timmons, she contacted me and said that if I needed any help on an assignment that she would be glad to help. I then decided she would be a great electronic contact since she was so willing to help me.For this assignment I asked Ms. Timmons, what types of technology she uses in her classroom and how is it used. Ms. Timmons answered back with many different technologies use in her classroom and at her school. Ms. Timmons’ school is up-to-date with all of the new technologies. The technologies are used daily in their classrooms.
The technology that Ms. Timmons uses in her class the most is an Elmo projector (this is a document camera, which is sort of like an overhead projector). I thought that the most interesting thing that Chet Creek Elementary uses the Elmo projector for was to broadcast in-school news programs. The news programs are broadcasted on a daily basis.
Other technologies that Ms. Timmons uses are various types of blogs (throughout the school and her classroom), and a wikispace. Ms. Timmon’s classroom blog can be located at http://curiouskindergartners.blogspot.com and she accesses the site often to keep the students updated on what is being posted. This blog is used to post different assignments and activities that the students complete. Another blog that Ms. Timmons’ uses is http://travelingchet.blogspot.com. This blog is to expose students to different places around the world. The theme of the blog is “Around the World in 180 Days”. The way the blog is used is when Ms. Timmons or her students travel they take Chet, the traveling bear with them. For example, if a student goes to Disney World they will take Chet and take a picture with him. When the student returns school he/she will write a blog post about their vacation and post the picture they took with Chet.
Ms. Timmons says “that on a professional development level their grade level keeps a wiki”. This site can be located at http://firstgradecce.wikispaces.com. Ms. Timmons say “this is where they house all of their resources”. Ms. Timmons told me that they just finished writing a new unit on persuasive writing and it is located on their wiki.
Chet Creek Elementary school also has a blog. This blog contains teachers that have done something interesting with technology in their classroom. The school nominates two teachers which they call “geeks” these teachers blog about their technology at http://ccegeeks.blogspot.com. The school also has a blog for teachers. Teachers use this blog to post information that they have learned from a conference that they attended. This blog can be located at http://livefromthecreek.blogspot.com .
Ms. Timmons told me that her school was constantly trying to look for interesting ways to use technology in their classroom. She said the major problem teachers have with trying to find new technologies is that many sites are blocked.
I really enjoyed the electronic contact with Ms. Timmons. I thought that all of the information she gave was very interesting and helpful. By speaking with Ms. Timmons she taught me to broaden my horizons. As a future teacher I now know that there are many resources available for me to use in my classroom. This contact with Ms. Timmons also taught me that although there are many technologies to use in the classroom, technology is always being updated. So as a teacher (when I become a teacher) I should stay up-to-date on technology. Technology is not only helpful in the classroom it is also another way to keep students involved and interested.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Pros and Cons of Blogging
For this assignment, I decided to view Lynda Rigsby’s complete blog. It was interesting to read Lynda’s blog to see her views about certain subjects. Since everyone in the class had the same blog assignment I was able to see other points of view besides my own. Lynda and I had a lot of the same views about technology. We both agreed that technology is great and we look forward to using technology as we become teachers.
I believe that there are many pros in using technology and blogging. I think that the major pro in blogging is being able to communicate with the students and their parents and/or guardians outside of the classroom. In using a blog, I as a teacher would be able to post students homework, assignments due and upcoming events to the classroom blog. This would be a great way to keep the parents and/or guardians involved in their children’s learning. Using a blog would also be convenient for students if they had forgotten to write down their homework assignments or to keep them caught up on the work if they are absent.
Another pro in using blogs is for the students to be able to communicate with other students from different schools around the world. A blog is a great way for teachers to communicate with other teachers around the world. I think that it is great for teachers to communicate with one another; it allows them to try different teaching strategies and find different teaching ideas.
I think that the only con in blogging and technology is that everyone may not have it available to them. Some students may not have access to a computer at home so it would be difficult for the student and parent to stay up-to-date on the blog. The way I will handle this type of situation is to make alternate ways available for the students and their parents and/or guardians.
Overall, I looked at the pros and cons of using technology and blogs in a classroom. I think using technology in the classroom gives students an advantage since our world is focused on technology. As a future teacher I plan to incorporate technology and blogs into my daily lessons and teaching.
I believe that there are many pros in using technology and blogging. I think that the major pro in blogging is being able to communicate with the students and their parents and/or guardians outside of the classroom. In using a blog, I as a teacher would be able to post students homework, assignments due and upcoming events to the classroom blog. This would be a great way to keep the parents and/or guardians involved in their children’s learning. Using a blog would also be convenient for students if they had forgotten to write down their homework assignments or to keep them caught up on the work if they are absent.
Another pro in using blogs is for the students to be able to communicate with other students from different schools around the world. A blog is a great way for teachers to communicate with other teachers around the world. I think that it is great for teachers to communicate with one another; it allows them to try different teaching strategies and find different teaching ideas.
I think that the only con in blogging and technology is that everyone may not have it available to them. Some students may not have access to a computer at home so it would be difficult for the student and parent to stay up-to-date on the blog. The way I will handle this type of situation is to make alternate ways available for the students and their parents and/or guardians.
Overall, I looked at the pros and cons of using technology and blogs in a classroom. I think using technology in the classroom gives students an advantage since our world is focused on technology. As a future teacher I plan to incorporate technology and blogs into my daily lessons and teaching.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
EDM 310 Podcast
The first podcast that I listened to was "The Last Lecture of Randy Pausch". This podcast was discussed between Jennifer Lenox and Lynda Rigsby. I thought that this podcast was interesting and informative. These ladies did a great job covering the information. I enjoyed listening to this podcast because I think that Randy Pausch is a wonderful role model. He tells everyone that they should achieve their dreams and strive to do their best. Overall I thought that Jennifer and Lynda had a great podcast.
The second podcast that I listened to was "Pick of the Day: Source Materials for High School Teachers on the World Wide Web". This podcast was discussed between Anne Gardner and Kimberly Hinojosa. I thought that this podcast had some very useful information for high school teachers. Anne and Kimberly did a great job covering their information and they gave some great websites that are very useful and informative.
The third podcast I listened to was "ACCESS-Distance Learning in Alabama High Schools". This podcast was discussed between Megan Morgan, Alicia Baxter, and Angel Jackson. These students are all from Dr. Strange's class. This podcast was made into a play. I thought that using a play to inform people of ACCESS was very creative. This podcast covered all the aspects and different components of ACCESS.
The fourth podcast I listened to was "Facebook: It's in Class! But Can It Be Useful In Class? Pros and Cons". This podcast was discussed between Peyton Ivey, Kendra Hill, Jessica White, and Jessica Courville. These students were also from Dr. Strange's class. This podcast gave useful information on how teachers can use Facebook in the classroom. These ladies also discussed the problems that can be caused from using Facebook in the classroom. I thought that these ladies covered their subject well and had much knowledge of the subject they were discussing.
Overall, I thought that everyone did a great job on their podcast. I noticed a few problems in all of the podcast. The biggest problem that everyone had, was that their podcast sounded more like a script than a conversation. Another problem in the podcast was the use of "um". It sound like everyone knew their material well, so I think "um" was used because of nervousness. The last problem that I noticed in everyones' podcast was pauses. The pauses seemed to be caused by losing place in the script. All of the problems that were face in these podcast could be fixed with more practice.
The second podcast that I listened to was "Pick of the Day: Source Materials for High School Teachers on the World Wide Web". This podcast was discussed between Anne Gardner and Kimberly Hinojosa. I thought that this podcast had some very useful information for high school teachers. Anne and Kimberly did a great job covering their information and they gave some great websites that are very useful and informative.
The third podcast I listened to was "ACCESS-Distance Learning in Alabama High Schools". This podcast was discussed between Megan Morgan, Alicia Baxter, and Angel Jackson. These students are all from Dr. Strange's class. This podcast was made into a play. I thought that using a play to inform people of ACCESS was very creative. This podcast covered all the aspects and different components of ACCESS.
The fourth podcast I listened to was "Facebook: It's in Class! But Can It Be Useful In Class? Pros and Cons". This podcast was discussed between Peyton Ivey, Kendra Hill, Jessica White, and Jessica Courville. These students were also from Dr. Strange's class. This podcast gave useful information on how teachers can use Facebook in the classroom. These ladies also discussed the problems that can be caused from using Facebook in the classroom. I thought that these ladies covered their subject well and had much knowledge of the subject they were discussing.
Overall, I thought that everyone did a great job on their podcast. I noticed a few problems in all of the podcast. The biggest problem that everyone had, was that their podcast sounded more like a script than a conversation. Another problem in the podcast was the use of "um". It sound like everyone knew their material well, so I think "um" was used because of nervousness. The last problem that I noticed in everyones' podcast was pauses. The pauses seemed to be caused by losing place in the script. All of the problems that were face in these podcast could be fixed with more practice.
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